Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of
Anthropology
Volume 19 | Issue 1
Article 5
6-21-2011
Collaboration for Conservation in Ankarana,
Madagascar
Kaye-Lynn Boucher
The University of Western Ontario, [email protected]
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Collaboration for Conservation in Ankarana, Madagascar
Keywords
Anthropological collaboration, primate conservation, Antsaravibe, Ankarana, Madagascar
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Boucher: Collaboration for Conservation in Ankarana, Madagascar
TOTEM 59
Collaboration for Conservation in
Ankarana, Madagascar
Kaye-Lynn Boucher
Madagascar is considered to be one
of the twenty-five “biodiversity hotspots” on
the planet (Myers et al. 2000; Conservation
International 2007). Such hotspots hold high
numbers of endemic species and face
extreme threats to their natural habitats
(Conservation International 2007). As a
result, conservation and the establishment of
protected parks and forests are crucial to the
survival of the biodiversity in these areas.
Many conservation plans, however, are
created without consideration of the local
people who also inhabit the land (Alcorn
1995). Some conservation strategies are then
considered burdens or inconveniences by the
local people they affect, partly because of
the restrictions imposed upon local resource
use (Sandy 2006). In order to examine this
process, I focus specifically on lemur
conservation in the region of Ankarana,
northern
Madagascar.
To
improve
conservation strategies, I argue that collaboration is essential among sociocultural
anthropologists, primatologists and the
larger non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) that create and implement
conservation strategies.
The interviews that are discussed in
this article were carried out during the 2010
field course in environmental anthropology
offered by The University of Western
Ontario’s Department of Anthropology. This
field course built upon an already existing
collaborative
project
between
The
University of Western Ontario, Canada and
l'Université d'Antsiranana, Madagascar.
Participants included seven Canadian
university students, seven Malagasy
university students, two primatologists, three
sociocultural anthropologists, and a prof-
essor of Anglo-American studies in
Madagascar. Each Canadian student was
partnered with a Malagasy student for the
duration of the field course. The interviews
described in this article were thus a
collaborative effort with my research
partner, Marie Ange Bevoavy. All of the
people interviewed were, at the time,
residents of Antsaravibe, a small town in the
western region of Ankarana. For additional
research
and
information
on
this
collaborative project, please refer to Shauna
Solomon’s 2009 thesis project.
This article provides examples from
the field course in northern Madagascar that
illustrate why it is important to have an
understanding of the local ways of living
when creating national parks and protected
areas. Knowledge obtained from and about
people living near these protected areas will
contribute to a better understanding of the
ecosystem as a whole and its relationship
with the local population. Information
regarding these relationships will aid in the
creation of successful strategies for environmental sustainability in Madagascar.
Lemur conservation in Ankarana
The prominent authority over the
maintenance and environmental protection
of many national parks and reserves in
Madagascar is known as ANGAP (The
National Association for the Management of
Protected Areas in Madagascar - Association
Nationale pour la Gestion des Aires
Protegees). ANGAP creates and implements
conservation action plans all over
Madagascar. The aims of ANGAP are to
safeguard
Madagascar’s
ecosystems,
research the biodiversity of the island,
develop environmental education programs
for rural populations, promote commercial
applications of Madagascar’s biodiversity,
and support sustainable development
activities in the areas surrounding protected
zones (ANGAP 2006). The Ankarana
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National Park is one of the protected areas
facilitated by ANGAP that our fieldcourse
group visited while in the region. The
Ankarana National Park is home to ten
known lemur species and covers 18,220 ha
of land (ANGAP 2006). Hunting and deforestation are strictly prohibited in areas
protected by ANGAP. If locals are caught
taking materials or game from the protected
areas they are punished with either fines or
imprisonment.
In this paper, I argue that better
understandings of local knowledge and
beliefs about lemurs and the forests are
required in order to develop effective and
more successful conservation plans.
Effective conservation plans would not only
protect and increase the lemur populations in
the Ankarana region but would also be
designed in such a way that does not impede
upon the lives of the local people. To
achieve this goal, conservation strategies
should provide benefits such as incentives
for local people to engage in such projects,
rather than harsh consequences (Brosius,
Tsing, and Zerner 1998).
Anthropological collaboration
In order to form a conservation
strategy that benefits both the ecosystem and
the local people who inhabit that ecosystem
and its surrounding areas, useful information
about each must be obtained. This is most
effectively done through the collaboration of
sociocultural anthropologists, primatologists, and the involved conservation
organizations (Quiatt and Koster 1994; Riley
2006). Conservation strategies usually
overlook local people in favour of focusing
solely on ‘nature’, therefore it is appropriate
to consider the difference between “Little
Conservation” and “Big Conservation”
efforts (Alcorn 1995). Alcorn (1995) defines
“Big Conservation” as large-scale organizations (e.g. ANGAP) that implement
conservation projects, often at the expense
of the local people. “Little Conservation”,
on the other hand, takes place at the local
level, in the day-to-day lives of the people
(Alcorn 1995).
Within this article, the people of
Antsaravibe are understood to represent
those involved within “Little Conservation”.
For conservation strategies to be effective,
however, aspects of both “Big” and “Little
Conservation” are essential. Yet the mandates and goals of “Big Conservation”
projects often conflict with the interests of
local people (Gezon 1997a, 1997b). As a
result, people become unhappy with “Big
Conservation” projects because they restrict
local access to natural resources (Alcorn
1995). This can be considered conservation
at the expense of the local people and is not
a productive or durable solution. What we
discovered in Antsaravibe was that the “Big
Conservation” organization, ANGAP, was
negatively affecting the lives of the local
people. Collaboration would enable anthropologists to communicate the local beliefs
and viewpoints to larger conservation
organizations so that these factors may be
taken into consideration when designing
projects for environmental sustainability.
Through collaborative anthropology
we obtain better understandings of the
different views that local people have with
respect to lemur conservation and
conservation in general. We learn about the
daily practices and belief systems locals
follow, which can then contextualize their
interactions with the local environments
unique to their culture and region.
Combining this information with data on
lemur ecology from primatology would
create a better understanding of how the
ecosystems
in
Ankarana
function
(Andriamalala and Gardner 2010; Sponsel
1997). People who live in the vicinity of
protected areas undoubtedly influence the
ecology of the surroundings. Successful
resource management strategies necessarily
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Boucher: Collaboration for Conservation in Ankarana, Madagascar
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understand and incorporate local customs
and traditional social systems of the
surrounding areas to create effective
conservation plans (Fritz-Vietta et al. 2009).
An example of such a situation can
be seen in the community-managed
protected area of Ankodida, located in
south-eastern Madagascar (Gardner et al.
2008). This project was able to conserve
Madagascar’s unique biodiversity while also
maintaining the culture and heritage of the
region (Gardner et al. 2008). This is because
the resource management of the protected
area had been designed to accommodate the
cultural, spiritual, and material needs of the
local Tandroy tribe while simultaneously
conserving the biodiversity in the area
(Gardner et al. 2008). This project
successfully linked sustainable solutions to
the indigenous practices and value systems
of the people (Kaufmann 2006). While
culture can be seen as damaging to nature
and something from which biodiversity must
be saved, in reality the two are inseparable
(Kaufmann 2006). Therefore, one should not
be thought of in absence of the other.
Conversations in Antsaravibe
During our field course, we stayed in
the small town of Antsaravibe for a total of
two weeks. While here, my Malagasy
research partner Marie Ange and I had many
conversations with the local residents.
Although Antsaravibe is approximately 20
km southwest of the main western entrance
to Ankarana National Park, people there still
feel pressure from ANGAP, including
restrictions on natural resource extraction
from protected areas and the resulting
punishments like large fines or imprisonment for certain unsustainable activities.
After talking with several people, we
began to understand more about the small
town and how different people living there
view conservation and lemurs specifically.
We learned that traditional customs and
beliefs are changing in the area. Some
people still acknowledge past customs,
while others have never heard of them. We
also found that people are not very
concerned about “Big Conservation”
projects, like those formed by ANGAP,
because they feel as though these projects
provide no benefit to their community. The
different beliefs and values we encountered
among the people of Antsaravibe helped us
to realize the importance of understanding
how people think and feel before
implementing large conservation projects in
their region. It should be noted, however,
that some interview responses were very
vague, and if informants appeared to be
uncomfortable with the questions, we did
not press them further. The information
gathered from the local people during this
study is presented in as accurate a manner as
possible for the purpose of preserving
fidelity. Consequently, the following
discussion of interview responses may
appear to be ambiguous at times. Furthermore, all of the informants’ identities in this
paper have been protected for privacy
reasons.
Conversations in Antsaravibe - fiainana
To demonstrate the importance of
obtaining local knowledge when forming a
conservation project, some examples will be
used regarding fiainana, the Malagasy term
for “ways of living” in Antsaravibe. This
involves how people make a living, or what
they do to gain a source of income. Based
on the interviews conducted, we found that
sources of income include: rice cultivation,
sugar cane farming, selling goods, growing
fruit such as oranges and bananas, vegetable
farming, and raising cattle and/or livestock,
along with some other professions, such as
hospital staff and radio announcers, also
being practiced. When we asked people if
they were concerned about conserving
natural resources such as drinkable water,
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forests, and wildlife, several answered that
they were not. When asked why, some
responded that it is because life has become
difficult and it is harder to be concerned
about conserving the environment in times
of economic uncertainty.
Occasionally,
we
also
asked
questions about “Big Conservation” projects
such as the Ankarana National Park. A
common response was that people do not
take anything from the protected areas
because they are afraid of being punished by
ANGAP. People help conserve the protected
areas, but seemingly out of fear of punishment, not necessarily because they see the
benefit in conserving such places. Other
people answered that they do know of
people who hunt in the protected areas,
sometimes for lemurs specifically. Still
others indicated that while they do not hunt
lemurs, they have eaten them. It seems that
because the large conservation project
provides no direct benefit to the local
people, only punishment, people may be
more likely to engage in such unsustainable
resource extraction (Alcorn 1995).
In addition to this, “Big Conservation” projects in Madagascar sometimes
assume that local people will not hunt
lemurs because of local fady (taboos) that
occasionally prohibit such behaviour (Keller
2009). Specifically, fady are taboos that
Malagasy people hold that can involve food
consumption, work habits, sacred places,
and other various aspects of daily life. There
are a number of common fady, but people
usually have their own unique combination
of fady that they follow. Since fady often
involve restrictions on the consumption of
certain animals, “Big Conservation”
organizations may come to the conclusion
that fady work in favour of their
conservation efforts. However, as Keller
(2009) points out, fady are not necessarily
acknowledged by everyone and can change
in just a few years. Marie Ange and I asked
many people in Antsaravibe if they knew of
any fady regarding lemurs. The majority of
the responses were negative. People claimed
that if they do not touch lemurs, it is not
because of fady but because they wish to
avoid punishment from ANGAP. Some of
the elderly people we interviewed do
remember lemur taboos at some point in
time but stated that they are not common
taboos today. We were also told that because
lemurs are similar in appearance to humans,
this is why they were once considered fady.
There are taboos against the
consumption of other animals as well, such
as goats, pigs, eel, and certain species of
birds, but these differ among individuals and
households. Many adults told us that they
would like their children to follow the fady
that they themselves followed; however,
because it is becoming increasingly difficult
to make a living, parents are reluctant to
have their children suffer additional hardships that might be inherent in following a
taboo. Therefore, fady seem to have a
declining influence among the people in this
area in conjunction with younger individuals
being less likely to continue or adopt the
fady of their parents or of elders. We did
however note that this process can actually
work in the opposite direction with younger
generations that voluntarily adopt fady that
have not been forced upon them by their
elders. This information reveals that changes
in fady could indicate a disparity between
generations as people are becoming more
inclined to do what makes life easier for
them and less inclined to follow traditions –
many of which, coincidentally, involve
respect for and the conservation of wildlife.
Diversity within Antsaravibe
When thinking about conservation
perspectives and practices, it is also
important to realize that local groups are
very distinct from one another in their
outlooks and that a diversity of viewpoints
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Boucher: Collaboration for Conservation in Ankarana, Madagascar
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can even be found within a related group of
people (Sandy 2006). It is a difficult task to
learn more about local beliefs and customs
when the people you talk to may not
represent the whole community (Gezon
1997b). It is important to note this diversity
because, as the interviewed responses below
demonstrate, showing some of the diversity
of beliefs about conservation is useful for
understanding the range of implications that
conservation efforts have on communities.
As mentioned previously, we asked
several people if they were aware of any
lemur hunting in their region. We received
many different responses. Several of the
elder individuals we interviewed in
Antsaravibe stated that people living in that
area do not hunt or even touch lemurs at all.
Some said this was because of ANGAP,
others because of the resemblance lemurs
share with humans. One adult we interviewed said that people occasionally catch
and consume lemurs but that it is only by
accident – the goal is not to catch a lemur
but another animal. Another adult told us
that a few people go out purposefully to hunt
lemurs all the time and that, although those
people also fear punishment from ANGAP,
they continue to hunt because it helps them
to make a living. Some people said only
vahiny (outsiders) hunt lemurs, while others
said that only the people native to the area
hunt lemurs. The variety of responses we
encountered indicates that it is important to
understand all points of view before
designing a conservation strategy. Any one
of these local viewpoints standing alone
would cause a misrepresentation.
We also asked several people about
lemurs and why they think conservation
organizations want to protect them. A few
people said lemurs have some importance
because when they defecate, they spread
seeds which help the forest to grow. They
also added that if a person is lost in the
forest, they know it is safe to eat any food
the lemurs eat since they are so similar to
humans. Additionally, some mentioned the
spiritual significance of lemurs as another
reason to protect them.
The majority of the people we
interviewed, however, did not see the benefit
in protecting lemurs. Many people stated
that the zebu (a type of domestic cattle) are
the most important animal, and after that are
the chickens, pigs, goats, cats, and other
domesticated animals. Lemurs do not have
much significance in the everyday lives of
the people who live in Antsaravibe. While
some people see the benefits of protecting a
non-domesticated animal, others do not.
This is significant in regards to conservation
projects because it shows that in order to
decrease lemur hunting, it is necessary to
provide education to the local people. This
would lead to an understanding as to why
locals should help protect the lemurs and
how conservation projects can directly and
indirectly benefit the people in both the short
and long terms (International Primatological
Society 2011). Furthermore, local values
and customs should be communicated to the
larger conservation organizations so that the
views of the people living in the area can be
integrated and accounted for within
conservation strategy designs.
Discussion and conclusion
The information collected through
interviews in Antsaravibe is only one small
example that demonstrates why it is
important to have knowledge of the local
ways of living when forming and enacting
effective conservation plans. As previously
discussed, there continues to be a considerable disregard for culture and local ways
of living in the development of conservation
strategies in Ankarana. Part of this is
because the natural environment has been
treated as though it is independent of the
local people. Yet the local people are
constantly engaging with the environment
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on a daily basis and are thus particularly
well-placed to contribute to conservation
projects in a positive way. Conservation
strategies that overlook culture in favour of
nature usually end up undermining the local
people, and as a result, producing overall
negative conservation outcomes.
The people of Antsaravibe and other
nearby towns are capable of, and critical of
aspects within “Little Conservation”, which
occurs at the local level. Without their
participation, conservation strategies are
unlikely to succeed. The “Big Conservation”
organization, in this case ANGAP, needs to
integrate local values and beliefs within the
conservation plans with the help of anthropologists and primatologists. Learning how
people interact with their environment
provides a good basis for the next step:
engaging the participation of local people in
efforts to protect the local environment.
Culture and nature are in a state of constant
interaction, and so it is necessary to consider
both when developing conservation projects.
It may be that “Big Conservation”
organizations assume that local beliefs are
being taken into consideration when they
assume that fady work in favour of
conservation (Keller 2009). Yet as I have
shown, viewpoints can differ greatly even
within a relatively small group of people.
This illustrates some of the potential
difficulties to the formation of conservation
strategies. For example, if only a few people
were interviewed, perhaps only the people
who claimed that no one touches the lemurs,
it would give the incorrect impression that
the conservation strategies are working. On
the other hand, if only the people who stated
that lemur hunting occurs all the time were
interviewed, additional restrictions on
resource use might be implemented. These
results would be based on misrepresented
viewpoints and contribute to ineffective
conservation strategies. Therefore, it is
important to recognize the diversity of view-
points of the locals because an inappropriate
action plan could have severe consequences
for the environment and for the local people.
Understanding this, qualitative research
conducted by anthropologists and primatologists would be ideal in providing “Big
Conservation” organizations with a more
accurate representation of local viewpoints.
As shown previously, if conservation
strategies are not beneficial to the local
people, or if the people lack the knowledge
or understanding behind the reasoning,
locals will not see the purpose. This will
likely drastically affect the success of the
implementation of any such strategy. It is
important to know how the people feel and
what they believe. It is important to know
that many are concerned about the
increasing difficulty of life, because this is
indicative that environmental conservation
may not be a high priority in their minds.
We must note the variety of feelings and
outlooks towards local species; some people
have fady that work in favour of conservation while others do not, and this means
we cannot rely on fady alone to conserve
(Keller 2009).
The information gathered from the
local people in Antsaravibe provides us with
some insight into the many factors that must
be considered when trying to maintain
protected areas. Anthropological research is
invaluable for the contributions it can make
towards preserving the biodiversity of
Madagascar without disrupting the lives of
the local people and ensuring that locals
have an active participant role in the
conservation of their own ecosystems
(Quiatt and Koster 1994; Riley 2006;
Sponsel 1997).
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Ian Colquhoun and
Dr. Andrew Walsh for being both excellent
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teachers and mentors. I am grateful to them
and to the Department of Anthropology at
UWO for giving me the opportunity to take
part in the Madagascar field course. I would
also like to thank my field course
classmates, both Canadian and Malagasy,
for their support and suggestions. And thank
you to Marie Ange Bevoavy, who was my
great friend and motivator throughout this
experience. Finally, thank you to Kevin and
Sandra for being courageous enough to let
me travel away from home, thank you to
Krissy for sending me good wishes and
good news, and thank you to Chris for
everything.
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